


Day Four - Winter Gear

by ScarsLikeVelvet



Series: A Very Sterek Winter 2021 [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021, Alpha Derek Hale, Alternate Universe, Crocheting, Fox!Stiles, Knitting, M/M, One-Shot, crafting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:03:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28935246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarsLikeVelvet/pseuds/ScarsLikeVelvet
Summary: Derek needs something to do. He tries different things until he finally settles on a surprising hobby. He gifts one of his first completed projects to Stiles.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: A Very Sterek Winter 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2101167
Comments: 14
Kudos: 62
Collections: A Very Sterek Winter 2021, Sterek Goodness





	Day Four - Winter Gear

**Title:** Day Four - Winter Gear

**Ratings:** Explicit

**Warnings:** No Archive Warnings Apply  


**Fandom(s):** Teen Wolf

**Category:** M/M

**Relationships:** Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski

**Characters:** Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Erica Reyes

**Tags:** A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021, One-Shot, Alternate Universe, Knitting, Crocheting, Crafting, Fox!Stiles, Alpha Derek Hale

**Summary:** Derek needs something to do. He tries different things until he finally settles on a surprising hobby. He gifts one of his first completed projects to Stiles.

**Word Count:** 3102

**Year:** Future

**Spoilers:** -

**Notes:** Written for A Very Sterek Winter Fest 2021 Theme of Winter Gear. This is a completed One-shot. There will be no more written in the universe. The tag for the day: #avswgear

**Alpha:** DarkJediQueen

**Beta:** Grammarly

  
  
  


Derek Hale was bored. Now being a bored Alpha was never a good idea. He had renovated the old Hale House on his own. Had taken to caring for the whole Preserve but it wasn't enough to keep him occupied. 

Even the shenanigans the pack got into with various creatures weren't enough. He had people who handled the research and who took care of things so that he himself didn't have to. He had fought enough battles to last him a lifetime. 

Derek Hale wanted something a lot calmer.

So he had tried fishing but he did not have the patience to just sit and wait for the fish to bite. It made him go stir crazy and although he had the patience to go and hunt like a wolf, he found it easier to cope with.

He tried different things. Reading left him lethargic although he liked it. He settled for audiobooks but those left his hands unoccupied which was kind of the point of something to do.

He enjoyed cooking and baking but he could only do so much of both during the week. He wasn't good enough to open a shop or a restaurant. 

It took a few tries but he finally literally stumbled into something he liked, enjoyed, and was good at.

He had gone to a crafting store one day to just take a look around and maybe grab some things to try out. 

The woman who ran the store was around fifty with greying hair and a kind smile. She softly enquired if he needed help.

Derek sighed softly and told her about his plight and what he had already tried to do.

She gently led him to a corner of the room where a seating arrangement was.

»Sit down … I'll bring some things over for you to try and maybe we find something for you to do and occupy your time,« she ordered.

Derek found himself obeying. He sat down on a comfortable couch and relaxed a little bit while watching her putter around the storefront. 

A moment later she came back with a skein of wool, some knitting and crocheting needles.

»Let's try this. It's not a typical male hobby but from what you told me you need something to occupy your hands and your mind and I find both knitting and crocheting do those things for me,« she said while sitting down next to him, handing him the wool and let him marvel at its texture before explaining the differences between knitting and crocheting.

Derek decides he wants to try knitting because he had always loved to watch his grandma sitting in her chair by the fire knitting. 

»I'm Elly by the way,« the kind woman introduced herself.

»Derek,« he answered a little gruffly but also with a smile making his face light up.

Elly nodded and took up another skein of wool and a pair of knitting needles. Slowly she explained and showed him how to handle the needles, how to take up a thread and go with it.

Derek watched carefully and tried to emulate her. He ended up with a mess and looked at his lap before he started to laugh. It felt good to laugh and Elly smiled. She gently asked if she could help him and asked him to turn around. 

»My mum showed me this way,« she explained and put her hands on Derek's and gently led him through the movements in a perspective he could emulate more easily.

He tried again and while it wasn't perfect he still had made progress. 

Elly showed him how to end one row and how to make his way back to the start of the row.

Derek struggled a bit with keeping his stitches even, but he also had fun. He felt some of the stress he usually felt eased up and relaxed his posture a bit more.

Elly watched him for a bit, offered some advice, and took up her own wool again. Her needles softly clicked away at a fast pace and an even rhythm showing her expertise in the craft. She kept an eye on the store but the people that meandered through mostly took care of themselves. 

They only made her leave Derek when they wanted to pay.

Derek was grateful for it. He stayed seated and knitted away for a long time. Feeling relaxed for the first time in the weeks after finishing rebuilding his home. 

»Derek? It's time for me to close up the store,« Elly told him.

He startled at her words and bit his lip a bit ashamed. He stammered his apologies and asked her what he owed her.

Elly smiled at that.

»I think you would benefit from participating in a beginner's course for knitting. Join that and take the wool and the pair of needles with you. The beginner's meet every Wednesday and Friday at five here at the shop,« she said and explained about the costs and what materials he would need.

Derek found himself readily agreeing. 

  
  


OoO

  
  


The following Wednesday he met the ›Needles & Stitches‹ for the first time. He was a bit shy around the group of young women. Surprisingly he wasn't the only guy who had showed up. The group was scattered around the seating arrangement. 

Elly explained what they would be doing today and waited for questions. 

Derek decided to continue on with the project he had started with Elly a few days ago. His movements were slow and deliberate.

Soon he lost himself in the rhythm of his needles and the softly murmured conversations of the other participants.

Derek found the group and the knitting a soothing experience. 

He decided to continue with the beginner's course.

Over the weeks that followed Derek learned different stitches and his rows became more even. Whenever he had time he worked on the scarf he had started with Elly's help. He had learned to change the colors of the wool and changed it every twenty rows.

Derek also started talking with some of the others who took the course. The other guy had dropped out, deciding he wanted to spend more time with his family. 

  
  


OoO

  
  


Derek kept his new hobby close to his heart. He did not tell anyone in the pack about it. Not even Stiles who he became closer to. 

They sometimes spent hours together sorting through the remnants of the Hale Library. Sometimes Peter helped but mostly Derek's uncle traveled around the world and tried to find new additions for the library.

Stiles spent more time at the renovated Hale House than at his own home. His scent permeated the house and both Derek and Peter loved how it intermingled with their scent.

Derek asked Stiles for recommendations regarding the design of one of the rooms upstairs and decorated it just like Stiles described it. Someday he would present Stiles with the room and tell him it was his. But it seemed like the younger man wasn't ready to move out of his father's house just yet.

  
  


OoO

  
  


Fall came and brought rain, wind, and cold with it. 

Derek didn't exactly hate it, but he was a werewolf and ran hotter by nature than humans. 

Stiles came in grumbling about the icy wind and the rain one day, while pulling his plaid shirt and his sweatshirt tighter around himself. His threadbare coat was hung near the front door and Derek sighed. He knew Stiles and his dad didn't have much money and they were still paying off the hospital bills of Stiles' mum so money was tight but both were too proud to ask for help.

When the time came for Stiles to leave, Derek decided to take a leap of faith. He told Stiles to wait a moment and went up to his room. When he came back down he held out a beanie, a pair of mittens, and a scarf. All slightly misshapen but made from a soft rainbow-colored yarn. 

»Here … take these,« he said gruffly while pushing them into Stiles' hands.

Stiles blinked confused before his face broke into a sweet smile.

»Thank you, Derek. Did you make them yourself?«, he asked while donning first the beanie and scarf before pulling on the mittens.

»Maybe« Derek allowed. He was prepared to be ridiculed but all Stiles did was smile sweetly and press a kiss against Derek's cheek.

»Thanks again,« he said before waving, shouting goodbye to Peter, and leaving the house.

Derek just stood in the hall and watched the door close behind Stiles.

  
  


OoO

  
  


When Stiles arrived at his father's house he sat down on his bed and held the set of woolen accessories in his hands. His thumb rubbed against them and he smiled because they were so soft. 

»Why did Derek give them to me? And when did he start to knit? And why? It's so not a hobby I would have expected him to have,« Stiles mumbled.

Since he didn't have any answers to his questions and the universe at large did not seem to want to answer him, Stiles just dropped back on the bed with a sigh and snuggled up against the comforter.

He buried his nose in the wool and smiled when he could smell Derek.

His nose wasn't as sensitive as a wolf’s but after the run-in, with the Nogitsune it was sharper than the average humans.

Stiles could still feel its magic move underneath his skin and knew if he gave in and let it meld with his own inherent magic he would probably be able to shift but he wasn't sure if it was something he wanted.

  
  


OoO

  
  


Whenever Derek saw Stiles over the next couple of weeks he was always wearing the beanie. The rest depended on the weather but the rainbow-colored beanie always adorned his head.

Derek felt flattered and his heart always beat faster when he saw Stiles with something he had made and provided him with. 

He asked Elly to learn how to knit socks and after a couple of false starts, he finally had it down.

He knew Stiles liked bright colors so he chose soft multicolored wool for the socks and made a couple of pairs.

Derek snuck them into Stiles’s wardrobe and never admitted to anything when asked but he was sure his blush gave him away.

That and Peter's amused laughter.

  
  


OoO

  
  


Stiles had smiled and felt so happy when he had found the woolen socks in his drawer.

He liked them. They were warm and fit well.

They were exactly what he needed in the dreary late fall, early winter weather they were having.

Derek providing for him made him feel warm and both the magics in him tingled.

He sought out the wolf more and since he knew about his hobby now, he was allowed to see Derek knit.

Stiles himself found it soothing. He happily sat by Derek's feet with a book or whatever papers he was writing and enjoyed the soft clicking sounds of needle against needle.

They did not talk about it but both knew something was growing between them.

  
  


OoO

  
  


Stiles finally decided to stop fighting his magic. It had never led him astray before and he decided to trust it. 

Over the next couple of weeks, the Nogitsune's magic and his own twinned around each other and finally melded during the full moon which was also the winter solstice.

Since he spent the solstice at the Hale House with Derek, Peter, and the rest of the pack, they all saw him shift into an arctic fox. His fur was bright white and he was huge. Nearly as big as a normal wolf. And he had nine tails instead of one.

Everyone was stunned.

Derek was the first to move.

He sniffed and a heartbeat later muttered a soft 'mate' before changing into his full-shift form. The huge black wolf towered over the white fox.

The fox stared at the wolf, yipped and nuzzled cheek against cheek for a moment before it gave a bark-like sound and started to run.

No one tried to stop Derek from following.

  
  


OoO

  
  


»What was that?« Erica asked softly while she watched the wolf hunt the fox out in the snow that had started falling a few days prior.

»Mating run,« Peter said and a soft smile adorned his face. He was happy for both his nephew and Stiles. 

»WHAT?«

Both Isaac and Scott shouted.

Peter laughed.

»It's instinct … when a wolf or really … any were-creature finds his one and only they initiate a mating run. When those two come back they will be bound and mated,« he explained and pointed to Boyd and Erica. »Those two did it two … however unwittingly.«

Erica and Boyd stared at each other for a moment before they grinned.

»Yay … so this hunk is mine for the rest of our lives?«, she asked to make sure.

Peter nodded.

»Yes.«

»WHAT?«

Scott and Isaac shouted again.

»Could you stop shouting, please?« Cora grumbled from her place in front of the fireplace. She turned the page of her book and did not participate further.

Lydia looked at both young men and shook her head.

»Really. Is it too much to ask of you to read the literature Stiles compiled for you like eight years ago which basically informs you about anything regarding werewolves? I mean … I'm a banshee and I read it just to be prepared and I got my own essay from both Stiles and Peter. Thank you for that by the way. I don't think I ever explicitly said that to you, Peter,« she said and smiled.

»You're more than welcome, Lydia,« Peter answered with a soft smile.

»But … it's so much to read,« Scott protested.

»Yes well … but you not reading and learning about what you are got us into so much shit. Yes it made you a true alpha for a while but you also lost it because you didn't know jack shit about anything, Scott,« Jackson cut off the whining.

Isaac didn't say anything. Instead, he pulled out his smartphone and searched for the PDF Stiles had sent him so long ago. He rose from his place on the sofa and walked over to the fireplace where he dropped onto his behind and started to read.

  
  


OoO

  
  


While the rest of the pack talked Derek chased Stiles through the Preserve. The snow lay nearly a foot high and made it hard to see Stiles but it made the chase so much more fun.

When he finally caught him, Stiles yielded easily. He yipped, turned on his back, and bared his throat.

Derek gently nipped it, before he nosed at him to turn.

Things got heated between them for a while.

Derek mounted him and while they had sex both shifted back to human. Derek still knotted him and claimed him with a bite where the neck meets the shoulder. 

Stiles' orgasm hit like a tsunami and his shriek echoed through the woods.

The energy they set free saturated the clearing and it was only when they calmed enough after their frenzied chase and lovemaking that they realized they were at the Nemeton.

Naked they curled around each other. Blood dripped onto the stump and bound both Stiles and Derek to the land.

They just breathed and kissed for a while before Stiles turned in Derek's arms.

He nuzzled his nose against Derek's.

»So mates, hu?«, he said.

Derek smiled softly and nuzzled right back.

»I love you, Stiles … have for a while now,« Derek admitted.

Stiles smiled warmly.

»Me too … since you gave me my beanie,« he answered.

Derek blushed.

When another shiver wracked through Stiles' body, Derek nudged him softly.

»Shift again and let us go back. We don't want anyone to see us streaking through the forest in midwinter,« he said.

Stiles blinked and started to ask how when it simply happened.

Derek shifted too and soon wolf and fox trudged back towards the Hale House. The bond between them brimming with happiness and laughter. Finally what had started between them so long ago felt right.

  
  


OoO

  
  


They slipped into the house and everyone stared at them from wherever they sat. 

Stiles huffed and shifted back. He had learned long ago that being naked around the pack wasn't a big deal. He looked around, found his beanie, pulled it on, and plopped down onto the sofa beside Lydia.

»Where did you get that beanie, Stiles? You've been wearing it nonstop for months now,« Erica said after hugging both Derek and Stiles and congratulating them.

»Derek made it,« Stiles said softly and curled into Derek's side when he sat down beside him.

Erica's gaze zeroed in on Derek.

»What? You made this? That's so cool. I want one too, please!« she said excitedly and bounced in front of Derek.

Derek sighed and rose again. He walked towards the corner of the room where he kept his knitting supplies. He selected a soft cotton yarn, a knitting pattern, and a set of needles.

After walking back to the sofa he hands them to Erica with a smile.

»Here … do it yourself. There are tutorials on the Internet or you can accompany me next week to »Needles and Stitches« to learn,« he told her before pulling a still naked Stiles into his equally naked lap to snuggle with him.

He would love to run his fingers through Stiles' chestnut locks but contends himself with playing with the beanie.

The rest of the pack just watches and relaxes. Their usual banter soon continues while Erica sits in Boyd's lap and watches knitting tutorials on YouTube.

Finally, all is well.

  
  
  



End file.
